Poet and Businessman reviews and analyses the modern history of Kuwait by telling the story of Abd al-Aziz al-Babtain (b. 1936), a businessman, philanthropist and poet whose own story closely interweaves with the history of the Gulf state. Constructing an overview of the modern history of Kuwait in parallel with the life of al-Babtain, Professor Leif Stenberg presents a rare study of an individual whose generation experienced first-hand the discovery of oil and the incredible changes it wrought on their small society.

Speakers

Leif Stenberg ​is Dean and Professor of Islamic Studies at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC), London. Between 2010 and 2019, Professor Stenberg was President of the Nordic Society of Middle Eastern Studies and he is currently a member of the World Congress of Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES).

Walid Ghali is the Head of the Aga Khan Library, London, Associate Professor of Islamic and Arabic studies at AKU-ISMC and a Chartered Librarian of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).